Football player

Career

Jean-Pierre Papin has described football as a "universal language". Footballers across the world and at almost any level may regularly attract large crowds of spectators, and players are the focal points of widespread social phenomena such as association football culture.

Footballers generally begin as amateurs and the best players progress to become professional players. Normally they start at a youth team (any local team) and from there, based on skill and talent, scouts offer contracts. Once signed, some learn to play better football and a few advance to the senior or professional teams.

Wages

Wages in some top leagues may be very significantly higher to other jobs. Players in the Premier League earn average wages of about $1 million per year. In the wealthiest clubs in European football leagues, players can even earn an average wage up to $6 to $8 million per year. The best players of those clubs can earn up to $70 million per year.

However, only a fraction of professional football players play at this level. Wages may be much more moderate in other divisions and leagues, and a significant amount of players are semi-professional. For example, the average annual salary for soccer players in the Major League Soccer for the 2013 season was $148,693 per year, with significant variations depending on player position (i.e. goalkeepers for example only earn $85,296, whereas forwards earn $251,805). Soccer players in lower levels in European football leagues may only earn an average of $2.5 million per year.

Average salaries in women's teams are far lower, both in American clubs and in Europe. For example, players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) earn but $6,000 to $30,000 per year.

Post-retirement

A minority of retired footballers continue working full-time within football, for instance as football managers. A 1979 study reported that former first-team ballplayers were over-represented as top ranking executives in their companies and had greater income mobility than second teamers and reserves. However, some experience chronic health issues, see below.

Psychological aspects of performance

Footballers perform more poorly when playing for a visiting team than a home team. This is called home advantage. In science, causes for this phenomenon have been proposed but never confirmed, making the reasons for this behaviour an "unsolved puzzle".

Research shows that association football players that take less than 200ms after the referee blows their whistle for a penalty kick are significantly more likely to miss scoring than those that take over a second.

Health issues

An Irish 2002 study of association and Gaelic football players characterised players as "lean and muscular with a reasonably high level of capacity in all areas of physical performance". The opposite is the case for American football, where obesity could be the cause of grave health problems.

A 2000 study documented injuries sustained by Czech [association] football players at all levels:

Trauma was the cause of 81.5% of the injuries and overuse was the cause of 18.5%. Joint sprains predominated (30%), followed by fractures (16%), muscle strains (15%), ligament ruptures (12%), meniscal tears and contusions (8%), and other injuries. Injuries to the knee were most prevalent (29%), followed by injuries to the ankle (19%) and spine (9%). More injuries occurred during games (59%) than in practice.

Patellar tendinitis (knee pain) is considered an overused injury that also happens to other athletes of virtually every sport. It is a common problem that football players develop and can usually be treated by a quadriceps strengthening program. Jumping activities place particularly high strains on the tendon and with repetitive jumping, tearing and injury of the tendon can occur. The chronic injury and healing response results in inflammation and localized pain.

Although levels of depression and pain in retired football players are on par with the societal average, some players suffer from post-retirement chronic injuries. Head injuries are a particular concern.

Life expectancy

The average life expectancy or lifespan of an American football NFL player has been reported to be extremely low, only 53 to 59 years depending on playing position. However, a 2012 study reported that retired NFL players have a lower death rate than men in the general population. An oft-cited life expectancy of 58 years has been claimed by Sports Illustrated to be based on a myth. According to a 2007 study, which also claims that little supporting data is available, retired American football players had "long and fulfilling careers with no apparent long-term detrimental effects on physical or mental health scores despite a high prevalence of arthritis". One explanation is that "life expectancy" is ambiguous: it may in some contexts refer to the expected age of death of a player, and in other contexts to the expected remaining number of life years.

As for association football, a 2011 German study found that German national team players live 1.9 years less than the general male population.

[S]occer players participating in international matches for Germany have reduced longevity compared to the general population. This disadvantage was the larger, the earlier the international soccer player started his international career. This finding is in line with the current knowledge of life expectancy in major athletes, especially those from other team sports

A 1983 study of rugby players found that the life expectancy of All Blacks is the same as for the general population.

Head

American football players are prone to head injuries such as concussion. In later life, this increases the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's. Professional American football players self-reporting concussions are at greater risk for having depressive episodes later in life compared with those retired players self-reporting no concussions.

Probably due to the repeated trauma associated with heading balls, professional association football has been suggested to increase the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In a 1987 study of former Norwegian association football national team players, one third of the players were found to have central cerebral atrophy, i.e. brain damage. A 1999 study connected soccer to chronic traumatic head injury (CTHI):

[P]articipation in amateur soccer in general and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance in memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications

Knee

Anterior cruciate ligaments are particularly vulnerable in most types of football due to injuries that can be sustained during tackles.

Hip

An increased incidence of osteoarthritis in the hip joint has been found in retired football players.

Muscles

A 2012 study of association football injuries found that 19% of all injuries were muscle injuries, of which 54% affected the thigh muscles.

Sleep and psychological functioning

In a 2009 study, association football was found to be associated with favourable sleep patterns and psychological functioning in adolescent male football players.

The rate of suicide among NFL vets has been found to be 59% lower than in the general population.

FIFA response

In 2012, FIFA released a paper intended to identify key risk factors for association football players.

Lists of players